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HISTOEICAL DISCOURSE 



THEODOEE 1). W00L8EY, 



ORATION 



THE INFLUENCE OF LAWYERS UPON FREE GOVERNMENTS, AND 

THE INFLUENCE OF MORAL FORCES UPON THE 

PROSPERITY OF GOVERNMENTS, 



Hon. EDWARDS PIERREPONT, LL.D., 



PROXOUNCED BEFORE 



THE AliUMlVI OF THE LAW DEPARTMENT 



YALE COLLEGE 



Fiftieth Anniversaby of the Foundation of the Depaetment, 
IN the Centre Chukch at New Haven, 

June 24th, 1874. 



PUBLISHED BY THE LAW DEPARTMENT OF YALE COLLEGE, 



1874, 



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PREFATORY NOTE. 



The celebration of the Semi-centennial Anniversary of the Yale Law 
School, on Wednesday, June 24th, 1874, was attended by a large number 
of its alumni from all parts of the country. The public exercises of the 
occasion took place at the Centre Chuch in New Haven, on Wednesday 
afternoon, Hon. Mokeison E. Waite, LL.D., Chief Justice of the Su- 
preme Court of the United States, presiding, Avhen the following dis- 
course and oration were pronounced. After the adjournment of this 
meeting, the Alumni of the School proceeded to its new apartments, 
occupying one floor of the new Coiirt House building, for an informal 
and social reunion. Short addresses were made by Chief Justice Waite, 
Hon. John Boxd, of the Class of 1826 ; Hon. Thomas H. Bond and 
Heney White, Esq., of the Class of 1827 ; Kev. O. E. Daggett, D.D., 
of the Class of 1830 ; Hon. Coenelius Van Santvooed, of the Class of 
1835 ; Hon. Edwaeds Pieeeepont, of the Class of 1839 ; Hon. William 
G. Bates, of Westfield, Mass. ; Hon. Alphonso Taft, of Cincinnati ; 
Prof. Cyeus Noetheop, of the Class of 1859, and Prof. Wm. C. Eobin- 
soN. Later in the evening the doors were thrown open for a more 
general reception, which was attended by the President and Fellows of 
the College, the Faculties of the other Departments, the Governor and 
Lieutenant-Governor of Connecticut, with the princii^al State officers, 
and other invited guests, gentlemen and ladies, numbering in all about 
five hundred. 

An Alumni Association Avas organized by the graduates of the Law 
Department in 1872, which meets annually on Wednesday of Commence- 
ment-week, at the Law School Lecture-room. That day will hereafter 
be devoted to the Anniversary Exercises of the Department, which will 
hold its commencement in the afternoon, when members of the grad- 
uating class Avill read theses or deliver orations on legal topics, and a 
prize of $100, established by Hon. James M. Townsend, of East Haven, 
Conn., will be awarded to the best writer and speaker on the occasion. 



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IV 



Tho staflf of instructors in the Department during the past year has 
been as follows : Rev. Noah Porteb, D.D., President, Francis Way- 
land, M.A., Professor of Mercantile Law and Evidence, and Lecturer on 
English Constitutional History; WrLLiAM C. Eobtnson, M. A., Professor of 
Elementary and Criminal Law and the Law of Real Property; Simeon E. 
Bald^^tn, M.A., Professor of Constitutional Law and the Law of Contracts 
and Wills, and Lecturer on Roman Law and Comparative Jurisprudence; 
Johnson T. Platt, M.A., Professor of Pleading and Equity Jnrisjyru- 
de?ice; Charles J. McCurdy, LL.D., Lecturer on Life Jnsurance; Rev. 
Theodore D. Woolsey, D.D., LL.D., Lecturer on the Law of Nations; 
Rev. Leonard Bacon, D.D., LL.D., Lecturer on Ecclesiastical Law; Rev. 
James M. Hoppin, D.D., LL.B., Lecturer on Forensic Composition; 
Mark Bailey, M.A., Instructor in Elocution: Francis Bacon, M.D., 
Lecturer on Medical Jurisprudence, and Frederick H. Betts, M.A. , 
Lecturer on Patent Law: Da^t:d D. Bald%\tn, M.A., Librarian. 



HISTORICAL ADDRESS 



BY 



THEODORE D WOOLSEY. 



o- 



Wlien Roman law was reaching its mature form, distinguislied 
lawyers, like Q. and P. Mucins Scsevola, were wont to receive 
students into their houses, in order to give them some kind of 
informal instruction in jurisprudence. This was done not for 
paj — for an aristocratic Eoman gentleman would have scorned 
getting a reward from pupils — but in order to benefit young 
friends, who had no law books nor law schools to aid them in 
learning the science. Cicero, thus, although never a professed 
jurist, was put by his father with Q. Mucins Scsevola, that he 
might draw instruction from his lips. But when Roman law 
became a complicated system under the emperors, schools arose 
for its study. Thus in the time of Justinian there were three 
great law schools, one at Rome in the "West, and two in the 
East, at Constantinople and at Berytus or Beirout, together 
with some others of less note. The Eastern schools were repre- 
sented in the preparation of the Digest by as many as four 
professors. 

The modern university system began with the revived study 
of law at Bologna in the twelfth century, and this, as much as 
an}' other cause, overthrew feudalism by substituting new and 
better law for that of the feudal period. At another great 
centre of university life, the University of Paris, civil law Avas 






t^^ 

m 




not studied until late in the seventeenth century, owing to the 
management of the popes, who were afraid that Paris, as a law 
school, would eclipse Bologna. In our mother country, Lon- 
don, rather than the universities, was the centre of law study, 
where the inns of court provided societies, into which young 
men desiring to become law^^ers and pleaders could be admit- 
ted, and could for a time obtain instruction. 

Sir William Blackstons, as many of m}^ hearers will remem- 
Vjer, cites from old Fortescue this question, Why the laws of 
England were not taught in the universities, as the civil and 
canon laws were? Whatever may have been the reason, 
whether it was that the Latin of the lecture-rooms there was 
not suited for the proper treatment of the law of England, or 
that laAv students would go Avhere cases on appeal were tried 
and a bod}' of lawyers dwelt, in order to learn forms and prin- 
ciples at the place of chief resort, — I say, Avhatever may have 
been tbe reason, the fact seems to be admitted that there was 
no formal instruction given at either university in common law, 
until Mr. Viner founded at Oxford the professorship of that 
science, of which, in 1758, Blackstone was appointed the first 
incumbent. 

In our countr}', for a long time after it became independent, 
the three learned professions were all alike in trusting for their 
new supplies to private instruction. Now and then a minister 
of eminence, like Dr. Bellamy of Bethlem, in this State, gath- 
ered about him quite a number of young men who had devoted 
themselves to the ministerial profession. The pupils heard 
lectures, read sermons or subjects of sermons or theological 
essays, and their influence on one another must have been very 
stimulating. Probably the same thing was true of eminent 
physicians. It certainly was of eminent lawyers. 

It is worthy of notice that the first law school in the country 
of any considerable note was founded in the town of Litch- 
field, next to Bethlem, where Dr. Bellamy lived. Bellamy's 



school was begun at least twenty-five years before the revolu- 
tionary war. The law school at Litchfield owed its origin to 
Tapping Reeve, a native of Long Island, a graduate at Nassau 
Hall, a son-in-law of President Burr, and so a brother-in-law 
of Aaron Burr, Vice-President of the United States, and was 
begun in 1784, just after the revolution was over. Some time 
before the end of the century Judge Beeve invited James 
Gould, a laAvyer in Litchfield, a graduate of Yale College, of 
1791, to take part in the instruction. They continued part- 
ners in the school until 1820, when. Judge Reeve having 
retired. Judge Gould became the head of the school and ere 
long associated with himself for a time Jabei^ W. Huntington, 
afterwards Senator of the United States and Judge of the Su- 
preme Court of Connecticut. Down to 1833, when Judge 
Gould, about five years before his death, discontinued his lec- 
tures, there had been educated at Litchfield, according to Mr. 
Hollister (Hist, of Conn., Vol. 2, p. 597), 1,024 lawyers from all 
parts of the United States, of whom 183 were from the Southern 
States. In this number are included fifteen United States 
Senators, five cabinet ofiicers in the general government, ten 
governors of States, fifty members of Congress, forty judges 
of the highest State Courts, and two judges of the Supreme 
Court of the United States. 

In the latter part of the eighteenth century and in the early 
years of the present, a school was set up in the city of New- 
Haven by Charles Chauncey, a lawyer of extensive practice. 
Of this school I know but little. Judge Samuel Hubbard, of 
the Supreme Court of Massachusetts, and Judge Wayne, of 
the Supreme Court of the United States, studied under Judge 
Chauncey. 

Mr. Seth P. Staples, a graduate of Yale College, of 1797, 
who soon attained to a large practice and a high reputation, 
and who, early in his professional life, seems to have collected 
a large library of unusual value for those times in this part of 






8 



the country, gathered around him a number of young men, 
whose \aw studies he superintended. This school, from which 
the existing law school of Yale College is a direct descendant, 
must have begun in the first decade of this century. One of 
the scholars in it was Samuel J. Hitchcock (Yale, 1809), a 
tutor in Yale College from 1811 to 1815, who fitted himself for 
the bar during his official connection with his alma mater, 
and afterwards settled in New Haven in the legal profession. 
In a few j-ears Mr. Staples invited Mr. Hitchcock to assist him 
in the instruction of his pupils, and in 1824 removed to New 
York, leaving the school in the hands of Judge Daggett and 
Mr. Hitchcock. Mr. Staples' great repute as a lawyer did not 
desert him on his removal to a larger sphere of professional 
labors. He stood in the front rank of his profession, especi- 
ally in commercial and patent law ; he gave, at one time, lec- 
tures on the first of these branches with great success ; he 
lived to a good old age and died at the age of eighty-six, hon- 
ored and deserving of honor for his private and professional 
life, in 1861. 

Of Mr. Staples, one of his pupils ' in 1828-1824, the last 
years of his instruction in New Haven, thus speaks : " Those 
who only saw him in the conflicts of the bar and heard his 
bitter sarcasms, could form no true estimate of his character. 
They saw nothing of his kindlier nature and social qualities, 
as exhibited in the office and the recitation room. As a teacher 
he exerted a magnetism over his students unsurpassed by any 
man I ever knew— a magnetism that drew his pupils into thor- 
ough study of first principles. No greater contrast could well 
exist than that presented by comparison of the formal law lec- 
tures of the Litchfield school and the off-hand comments and 
illustrations of Mr. Staples' class-room : Judge Gould read 
his able and finished lectures with a cold dignity to his stu- 
dents, each seated at his separate desk, intent on copying 
from his lips the principles laid down and the authorities re- 



9 



ferred to, embodying a system of law for future reference and 
use. In the 'New Haven school, at the time it was made a de- 
partment of the college, the class recitations superseded in 
great measure the formal lecture. The student in his study 
drew the principles from the text book. In the recitation they 
were sifted, tested and illustrated. It was here that Mr. 
Staples was perhaps unrivaled as a teacher. His practice at 
the bar enabled him to illustrate principles and decisions from 
his own experience and observation, in such a manner as to 
fix them in the mind in a manner very different from the 
mere entry of them in a note book. Mr. Staples read few lec- 
tures, and they were not of a high order. It was as an off- 
hand commentator that he impressed himself as well as the hno 
on the minds of his students." 

In 1824 the school thus bequeathed by Mr. Staples to two of 
his brethren of the bar, had, through the publication of the 
students names on the annual catalogue, a sort of vague con- 
nection with Yale College, of whi(5h most of them could be 
called resident graduates. In 1826 the connection became 
closer, since, in that year Judge Daggett was appointed Pro- 
fessor of Law on the foundation provided b}^ a number of 
Chancellor Kent's friends for his Alma Mater, and called by his 
honored name. It was not, however, until 1843 that the 
degree of Bachelor in Law on examination began to be con- 
ferred, which placed the law faculty and department on a level 
with the others. Thus, one may say, that fifty years ago the 
school was acknowledged by the college as in some measure 
belonging to it; forty-eight years ago it began to be a part of 
the university; and thirty-one years ago it reached its majority 
by acquiring the privilege of having its students, after a certain 
term of study and a successful examination, promoted to 
academical honors. In this way a fourth faculty of instruc- 
tion was added to the college. 

Considered in relation to its instructors, the school has had 
2 



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10 



three stages, and is now in the third. The first iuchides the 
years fronl 18'M \o 1847, when Jndge Daggett was at its head 
assisted liv Mr. Hitchcock, until the death of the latter, in 
1845, and by Mr. Isaac H. Townsend from 1842 until his 
death, in 1847. Nearly two years before Mr. Townsend's death. 
Judge Wm. L. Storrs was appointed one of the instructors of 
the school, but resigned his position in 1847, finding that the 
duty of instruction called liiin away too much from the prepa- 
ration of opinions on cases of appeal in the Supreme Court. 
Our honored townsman, Henry White, Esq., gave his assist- 
ance to the instructors during nearlj^ two years, from February, 
184G, to October, 1847. Thus at the end of the college year in 
1847, as Judge Daggett also, owing to his advanced age, had 
retired from instruction, it became necessary for the college 
authorities to put a new corps of officers into the school, and 
so a second stage commenced. The choice fell on Hon. Clark 
Bissell, who had been a jndge of the Supreme Court of Errors, 
from 1829 to 1839, and was, at the time of his appointment, 
governor of the State ; and on Henry Dutton, a lawyer, 
residing in Bridgeport, who had been a tutor in the college, 
and was now in the full practice of his profession. Governor 
Bissell continued his connection with the school until the 
autumn of 1855, when, at a ripe old age, he retired from active 
employments to his home in Norwalk, Avhere he closed an 
honored and useful life two years afterwards. Mr. Dutton was 
elected governor of the State in 1854, and in 1861 was chosen one 
of the judges of the Supreme Court of Errors, which office he 
filled until his superannuation, at the age of seventy, in 1866. 
He continued to be the head of the school until 1869, when he 
died. In the year 1855, Hon. Thomas B. Osborne, who had 
been a member of Congress, was appointed to be an associate 
in the school with Governor Dutton, and continued to give in- 
struction until 1865, when he resigned, four years before his 
death. From that time until Professor Dutton's death, he had 



11 



the sole charge of the school, and being often called away by 
his private or piofessional bnsine,,ss, was not able to give the 
due degree of attention to his professorial charge. The school, 
therefore, in the last years of his life and of his office, greatly 
declined, until there appeared a meagre list of sixteen or seven- 
teen students on the catalogues of 1867 and 1868, of whom 
a considerable part could scarcely be called students. This 
second stage continued for twenty-two years — about the same 
number of years with the first. 

At this point of greatest depression, when it seemed 
doubtful whether the study of law as a department of instruc- 
tion in Yale College ought not to be abandoned altctgether, the 
services of three gentlemen of the legal profession, in New 
Haven, Messrs. Baldwin, Piatt and Robinson, were engaged to 
carry on the instruction in law for another year. It was at 
first rather an experiment than a permanent plan, both on 
their part and on that of the college authorities. They began 
with seventeen students. In 1871, Hon. Francis Wayland, who 
had been Lieutenant-Governor of the State, was associated 
with them. The school recovered, by degrees, its old numbers, 
and at least its old reputation. The present year has brought 
with it more students than have ever appeared on the catalogue 
before. 

This increase is due to several causes besides the zeal and 
ability of the four professors, " whose works praise them in 
the gates." 

One of these causes is that the new professors have been 
able to enlarge and broaden the system of law training, by 
calling ill the aid of auxiliary lestiirers to a greater degree than 
before. Thus the late Professor Hadley delivered here his 
clear and beautiful lectures introductory to iloman Law, which 
have been given to the public since his death. Dr. Leonard 
Bacon has lectured on Ecclesiastical Law ; Dr. Francis Bacon 
onMedicalJurisprudence ; Judge Chales J. McOurdy on Insu' 






mm 




12 

ance ; other gentlemen on International Law, on the Law of 
Patents, and on the Style an(\ the Elocution of the Forum. It 
is believed that nowhere in the United States these subsidiary 
branches of knowledge, of which, perhaps, the special pleader 
or the drawer of legal formulas can afl'ord to be ignorant, but 
which, when known, broaden and elevate legal study, bringing 
it out of the dull routine and dryness of common practice, as 
well as supplying food for thought — I say that nowhere in 
the United States are these handmaids' to a finished legal 
education bi'ought more effectively into the service of legal 
studies and made more useful than in the Yale Law School, in 
the latest stage of its development. And by the carrying out 
of this plan, it is made apparent how much more comprehen- 
sive and finished a legal education ought to be, when it is pur- 
sued as a department of a university, than wh-an it stands 
alone. 

The second cause of prosperity and ground of hope for the 
future lies in the apartments which have been secured for the 
school by the action of the New Haven County Bar and the 
County Commissioners. A court house had been projected, to 
be placed by the side of the town house, built a few years 
since, when it was suggested that room could be afforded for 
the law lectures and the library within the walls. The third 
story was planned with this in view, it being understood that 
the books of the library should be open for consultation for the 
judges of the Supreme and other courts held within the build- 
ing, as well for the lawyers, who were to have the privilege of 
taking them into the neighboring court-rooms when they had 
cases before the tribunals. The plan has been so carried out 
that, at the expense of the county, a large and commodious 
lecture-room, an elegantly finished library, with an adjoining 
chamber, ready to receive books whenever the overflow shall 
make it necessary, a private apartment for the Dean of the 
Faculty, and other rooms, suitable for the purposes of " quiz- 



13 



clubs " and moot-courts, have been provided. Perhaps in no 
place, where a law faculty has not a building of its own, could 
better arrangements have been made. The bench, the bar, 
the school are brought not only into proximity but into har- 
mony ; the books are made available both for the student, the 
lawyer and the judge ; and the liberality of the county which 
has furnished all this, free of charge or rent, receives back 
what, I understand, is universally agreed to be a full equivalent 
for what it has expended, the u.se of the intellectual instruments 
of law, no adequate collection of which had previously existed 
nearer than Hartford or New York. 

This is the best possible arrangement that could be made for 
the supply of present wants ; but I must avow the opinion, 
that, if the school should be greatly enlarged and be put upon 
a permanent basis of strength, increased accommodation, some- 
where in a central spot, not far from the courts, would be found 
essential. If, for instance, the number of students should 
grow to two hundred, or even a hundred and fifty, instead of 
fifty-four, more lecture-rooms would be wanted, unless the 
best hours of the day should be monopolized by one or two 
out of a number of professors. And if the library, instead of 
confining itself mainly to reports of English and American 
courts, to the text-writers of our system of law, and to collec- 
tions of statutes, should aim successfully at exhaustive com- 
prehension, so as to include civil law with its best expounders 
in every language, ecclesiastical law, the digests, codes, reports 
and systems of all the leading European nations, with what- 
ever is valuable on the theory of legislation, on the doctrine of 
rights and the State, on the history of governments and insti- 
tutions, apartments many times the size of the present ones 
would be found necessary."" Meanwhile, it behooves us to 

* It will be gratifying to the friends of the school to learn that something has 
already been done in this direction. Within the jjast two years about a hundred 
volumes of English, French and German works upon the Roman Law, as many 
upon different branches of political science, and over twelve hundred relating to 
American and English constitutional history, have been added to the Library. 



'S^i *' '? ■ 'i/ ^ -^ J 1^': 5'-v^' i'i^ 




14 



accept, in all thankfulness, the chambers so liberallj- provided 
for us, and to congratulate ourselves that the books can be of 
general service to the profession. 

The tlilrd cause from Avhich we may hope for success is the 
enlargement of the library itself. So far as I am informed, 
before about 1845 there was no library pertaining to the 
school. Those who needed to consult authorities had to go to 
Judge Hitchcock's private collection, which, indeed, for that 
day, was quite large. In the year mentioned, and soon after 
the death of Judge Hitchcock, a subscription was taken up for 
the purchase of his library, and a considerable sum was raised 
for this purpose, but not enough to procure it without the in- 
tervention of the College to make up the deficiency. It was 
agreed upon at the same time that a certain small part of the 
annual receipts of the school should be devoted to the preser- 
vation and increase of the librar3^ But in process of time, 
when the receipts dwindled, and the purchasing power of 
money became reduced, it was found not easy to keep the 
library in good condition, still less by additions to make it rep- 
resent the progress of legal science. In 1869, therefore, when 
the present instructors took the school into their hands, it was 
found that many sets had become mutilated, that quite a num- 
ber of books had disapj)eared, and that others were hardly fit 
to be used. A beginning was now made of supplying the defi- 
ciencies, but the principal movement for this purpose took place 
in 1873, when, chiefly by the efforts of Prof. Wayland, nearly 
twenty thousand dollars were collected, for the most part in New 
Haven and New York, to be used in the immediate purchase of 
additions to the library. The books procured by these new funds 
bring, as far as possible, the law-learning, including the laws, 
the text-writers, and the reports of judicial decisions, of both 
England and of the United States, within the reach of the 
students, down to the present time. The labor of purchasing 
these volumes, and of seeing them properly arranged in the 



15 



library, fell chiefly to the share of Prof. Blatt, to whom the 
school and all who use the books owe great thanks. While the 
collection was thus expanding, Governor English, by his munifi- 
cent gift of ten thousand dollars to serve as a permanent fund 
for the increase and preservation of the library, provided for the 
wants of the future. Thus, what may be called the soul of the 
school is full of life and growth, and it will be a pleasure to all 
who take an interest in Yale College to associate the name of 
this benefactor of more than one department of the institution, 
with a constantly increasing supply of that food, without which 
neither law nor any other branch of knowledge can have a 
proper support and vigor. l*^ifty years hence this fund, if well 
husbanded and well expended, will largely exceed by its an- 
nual harvests all other sources of supply, and the library will 
hardly fail to keep pace with the times.'-' 

I have spoken thus far of the outward and material side of 
the law department. In what remains of this address, I will 
call my hearers' attention to the men who have chiefly directed 
its afl'airs. And here, as I cannot well speak of the living or 
of those who have but just passed away, what I say must be 
chiefly confined to those who may be regarded as fathers and 
founders of the institution. 

First of all comes before us the imposing form of Judge 
Daggett, that gentleman of the old school, with his aquiline 
nose, and other striking features, his white-topped boots, 
small clothes and silk stockings, his courtesy toward all, and 
that expectation of respect from others which belonged to 
the gentlemen of the former time. He was born in Attle- 
borough, Massachusetts, in 1764, and came to Yale College for 



* It should also he mentioned that, b\^ the liberality of Hon. Mai'shall .Jewell, 
Hon. -James M. Townsend, and E. J. Edwards, Esq., foundations for prizes have 
been established, by which three hundred dollars are annually awarded to the suc- 
cessful competitors aiuong the students, for excellence in scholarship, forensic com- 
position, and orator3\ 



16 



his education, probabl}' because bis relative from the same 
place had some time before filled the office of president of the 
College. He received his legal training in New Haven, after 
his graduation in 1783, in the ofiice of Charles Chauncey, of 
whom, as having trained a number of young men in law 
we have already spoken, and was admitted to the bar in 1786. 

Mr. Daggett seems to have early won the confidence and 
admiration of the people in JMew Haven and in the State. 
Starting in active life at the time of the formation of the Con- 
stitution, he espoused with warmth the federal side in politics, 
as against the States' rights or democratic theory ; and the 
State being decidedly under the control of the federalists for 
a generation, it was not strange that a brilliant young man 
should be early called into political life. He was sent by the 
people of New Haven to represent them in the General As- 
sembly, at the age of twenty-seven, in 1791, and for five succes- 
sive years afterwards, for the last three of which he was 
speaker of the House of Representatives. 

From 1797 until 1804, he was a member of the Supreme 
Court of Errors. Then he was again sent to the Assembly, 
and again to the Council, and in 1813 was chosen a senator of 
the United States. The years after his term as a senator 
until 1824, when he joined Mr. Hitchcock in the school, were 
spent in the work of his profession exclusively, without his 
being called into political life. In 1826 he became an associate 
judge of the Supreme Court of Connecticut, and was chief 
judge in 1833-1834, when he became superannuated, at the 
age of seventy. 

At the time when I can first remember him, he was regarded 
as a great pleader, and especially his speeches in the case 
when Joshua Stow sued Sherman Converse for a libel pro- 
duced a powerful impression u})on the community. Here the 
feelings of the advocate were warmly enlisted on the side of 
his client, in whose newspaper a man of some note in the 



17 

State had been charged with malpractice as a collector of 
taxes, with infidelity, and with other things injurious to his 
character. The suit grew out of political dislike of one who 
was obnoxious as a democrat and as an overturner of the old 
charter of Charles II, under which Connecticut had been 
governed from 1664 until 1818. Mr. Daggett was here in his 
glorj, and perhaps no plea ever excited a deeper interest in 
New Haven, expecially among the students, than this. As 
a learned and scientific lawyer, however, Mr. Daggett did not 
rank so high as others, who were his juniors, and who confined 
themselves more closely to the duties of professional life. He 
had in his busy years little leisure to study the doctrines of law, 
except in connection with his cases. Political duties absorbed 
much of his time, and his judicial functions, after he was in- 
vested with them, prevented him from elaborating his lectures. 
He was, moreover, sixty years old when he took charge of the 
school. But I will let one of his pupils speak of him, who 
within the last few weeks has kindly communicated to me 
his recollections. 

This gentleman, who belonged to the school near the end of 
Judge Daggett's connection witli it, expresses himself thus : 



" He lectured every morning immediately after Judge Hitch- 
cock's recitation, and the lectures on constitutional law (which 
were also delivered before the seniors in college) were made 
very interesting, because his experience in the Senate and inti- 
macy with many of the founders of the Republic, supplied him 
with many anecdotes which he told with much gusto. He had 
been a decided federalist, and delighted in giving an occasional 
slap to Mr. Jefferson, whose character and career were at that 
time the subject of much discussion in the debating societies 
of the college and the law school." 

" His good humor, readiness at repartee and crusty mode of 
summing up his sentiments in a few words, made him always 



mmiMmmmmmmm 



18 



more interesting in conversation than in the lecture-room. His 
lectures on the common law, which were read from well-worn 
manuscripts, were not as interesting. He had been so long out 
of practice that he had not kept up with the later decisions, 
and the substance of tliep.i was contained in Swift's Digest." 

Others of his pupils concur in the estimate here expressed. 

Of Judge Hitchcock, the colleague of Judge Daggett until his 
death, we have spoken as a graduate of Yale of the jear 1809, 
and a tutor there for four years from 1811 to 1815. The accu- 
racy of scholarship which distinguished him at college he car- 
ried into the profession of law, and soon acquired the confi- 
dence of his professional brethren and of the public. Before 
1822, I believe, he began to teach law to the pupils whom Mr. 
Setli P. Staples gathered around him, and as we have already 
seen, when that gentleman removed to Noav York, the school 
was entrusted in part to him. 

The leading work of his life from this time until his death, 
in 1845, was that of a teacher. He was a dry, exact man, clear 
in his perceptions, with little geniality or enthusiasm, yet with 
a great love of truth, and a thoroughly conscientious spirit. 
He shrunk from no labor, was patient in acquiring and in im- 
parting the principles of his science, and evidently had the 
good of his pupils at heart. He was, withal, one of the most 
decidedly religious men to be found in any department of life. 
He was not titted to make a deep impression on a jury, nor did 
he either desire or obtain political honors ; but this, I think, 
may be said of him, that if his professional brethren wanted 
advice, there were few, if any persons in the city, or in the 
State, to whom they would sooner go than to him. 

One would not suppose from the precisenoss and formality 
of Mr. Hitchcock's general manner that he could interest 
students, but it would seem as if, in matter of fact, few men 
have ever taught law in this country with more success than he. 
One of his pupils expresses his recollections of him in these 






I! 



19 



words : " I was a groat admirer of Jvidge Hitchcock. He was 
a model teacher. He was so clear, you could not fail to under- 
stand him fully ; so copious in instruction and illustration, that 
he seemed to exhaust the subject, and you felt that he was 
master of the principles of law, and of their application and 
analogies ; and yet so compact in style that he never used a 
word too much. As I had just come from Harvard, I often 
compared him with Judge Story, and was at a loss to decide 
which was the most admirable instructor. We recited to him 
in Cruise's Digest. It was called a book hard to understand, 
but under his teaching it was all clear and plain ; and we won- 
dered how it had got such a name. Recitations to him were 
for a full half-hour lectures from him on the subjects we were 
studjdng." Another gentleman, who studied law in this school 
in the years 1838 and 1839, writes of him thus : " The main- 
stay of the school was Judge Hitchcock. Many of the students 
had studied one year at Cambridge, where the school was much 
larger, and where Judge Stor}^ was the great ornament ; but 
they all gave the palm to Hitchcock over Greenleaf, able and 
learned as the latter was admitted to be. The introductory 
lecture of Judge Hitchcock always made a great impression. 
He dwelt upon the distinction between rert(?/v?(/ and 8/;^t/?/,- upon 
the fact that they had not come there to win prizes in the shape 
of degrees ; that a man might read law forever, and not be a 
lawyer ; he must study, and he might study much, but it would be 
to little purpose unless he accustomed himself to feel that he had 
the responsibility of some future chent [in his hands] whose prop- 
erty or rights would depend upon the accuracj' with which the 
books [he had studied] were comprehended. His running com- 
ments, as the recitation progressed, were remarkable , not so much 
for the matter as for the manner of putting them. There was a 
tinge of cynicism about him which gave much effect and pun- 
gency to his utterances. He had an intense horror of shams. 
The series of questions with which he tested the students' 



r^m^^i^!m:m'^^::- 



20 



knowledge were what might be described as searching ; they 
gave an interest to the pages of Cruise and Chitty, which the 
students, on previously reading them, had never suspected to 
exist." 

" The recitations in the first volume of Blackstone's Com- 
mentaries had a [)articular interest for those who did not in- 
tend to follow the law as a profession, and many of the theo- 
logical students were in the habit of coming into the lecture- 
room at this time." 

" You are aware there are some chapters relating to subjects 
which are obsolete or have no possible application to this 
country. On that account they are not made the subject of 
recitation in most law schools ; but Judge Hitchcock made us 
[study] them all, as he said that we should find frequent refer- 
ences to them in our future reading, and would better under- 
stand some of the influences which had built up the common 
law. The chapter on the king's royal title, he thought, should 
be carefully studied by every one who wished to get a clear 
idea of English historj'. It was amazing, indeed, to see what 
stores of illustrations from history, fiction, poetry and the 
classics were treasured up in the brain of this man, who ap- 
peared to the world as nothing but a dry lawyer." 

We add to these communications from his students tbe 
passing remark, that a man who has an under-current of enthusi- 
asm for some special science or study, united with conscientious 
accuracy and clearness, will make the most successful of in- 
structors. As soon as he wins his pupils' confidence and re- 
spect for his intellect and acquirements, the enthusiasm will 
be catching, and the more so, because it is of a simple, unde- 
monstrative kind. 

There was another teacher of the law school, an associate of 
the gentlemen already mentioned, to whose short but honor- 
able career, a few brief words must be devoted. Mr. Townsend 
entered the school as an instructor wlien Judge Daggett was 



21 



seventy-eiglit years old, and three years before the death of 
Judge Hitchcock, with the reputation of a well read and learned 
lawyer. His brief career of five years as a professor of law 
fulfilled the expectations of those who appointed him. He was 
a most amiable, simple-hearted man, full of interest in the pur- 
suits to which he had devoted his life. 

In 1846 the law department was constituted, by a formal act 
of the Corporation, one of the co-ordinate branches of Yale 
College, and Judge Storrs, Mr. Henry White and Mr. Towns- 
end were appointed professors. Mr. "White gave instructions, 
as w^e have said, for the greater part of two years, but found it 
incompatible with his jirofessional engagements to continue 
his labors longer. Judge Storrs' stay in his professorship was 
equally short, for a reason that has been mentioned already. 
Mr. Townsend sickened in 1846, and died in January, 1847. 
With this break in the succession of instructors, I shall bring 
my notices of its instructors, already too long, perhaps, to a 
close, for those who succeeded, — especially Governor Dutton 
and Mr. Osborne, — have too recently passed away, to render 
sketches of their lives or labors in the law department either 
necessary or proper. 

We may now profitably turn to another subject having 
more important bearings on the future, and enquire whether 
a large and ilourishing school of law can be hoped for in 
this city, and whether a connection with a seat of learning, 
where the whole circle of sciences is taught, is the best 
place for such an institution. In the past, especiallj* in 
the most recent past, the discouragements have been very 
great. A gentleman was at the head of the department who, 
with all disposition to give his best services to it, was com- 
pelled to attend to the duties of his profession, if he would 
gain a support. Then he was called to the bench and left the 
school half-manned. The library was, so to speak, in rags. 
To raise the department seemed to need, not only zeal and 



22 



ability, but the patience, the self-donving outlays, M'itliout im- 
mediate returns, to which uo man connected with a public in- 
stitution ought to be called. But even in its present revived 
condition, can the school be expected to increase to any very 
great extent. Or must it correspond in size with the demands 
of the State where it is situated ? Here we must take into 
account the disposition of great numbers of young men to go 
for their initiation into practical life to some central spot, like 
New York, which, while it is not well fitted for the preparatory 
training, ofi'ers great advantages to those who wish to get them- 
selves ready for the professions of law and me(hcine. There 
is no doubt that the present law school of Columbia 
College is mainly indebted for its very great success 
to one learned and most laborious instructor. Professor Theo- 
dore W. Dwight, who, it ought to be mentioned for the credit of 
the school here, was for a year one of its members ; but if this 
distinguished teacher were here, and some man of much less 
ability and note tlicre, the numbers in the two schools would not, 
for that single reason, be reversed. There would not be over four 
hundred scholars in law here instead of but a few over fifty. 
Still there is no question that, with present advantages, the ability 
and fidelity of the professors ought, ere long, to cause a large 
accession to the numbers. Another consideration deserves to 
be brought forward in this place. I refer to the attractions 
that a university town offers to many j'oung men, to the oppor- 
tunities for auxiliary studies, the comparative quiet and other 
charms which a large city given to commerce does not possess. 
Though we cannot expect that the law school of Yale College, 
in the best circumstances, would rival, in mere numbers, one 
equally well situated in the centre of business, we may expect 
to see its prosperity very greatly enlarged with its means of 
instruction and its growing reputation. 

At this point, when I am about to close my address, I cannot 
help offering to my hearers a view of a law school Avhich, al- 
though only ideal and possible at present, deserves to be 



23 



looked at with attention. It is, moreover, one which harmonizes 
well with the whole circle of study pursued at Yale College, and 
could be realized in such a place as this, where some of the 
chairs already founded could be made to contribute to the 
carrying out of the ideal plan more easily than almost any- 
where else in this country. I am the more willing to present 
the idea to my hearers, because I conceive it to be eminently 
needed as a reality in the United States. Let the school, 
then, be regarded no longer as simply the place for training 
men to plead causes, to give advice to clients, to defend crimi- 
nals ; but let it be regarded as the place of instruction in 
all sound learning relating to the foundations of justice, the 
history of law, the doctrine of government, to all those branches 
of knowledge which the most finished statesman and legislator 
ought to know. First of all I would have the training essential 
to the lawyer by profession as complete and thorough as pos- 
sible. Let that be still the main thing, and let the examinations 
together with appropriate theses be a proof that every gradu- 
ate has fairly earned his degree. But with this let there be 
ample opportunity for those who wish the aid of teachers in 
studying the constitution and political history of our country 
to pursue their studies in a special course by the side of or 
after the preparation for the bar. Let the law of nations, the 
doctrine of finance and taxation, the general doctrine of rights 
and the State, the relation of politics and morals, be within the 
reach of such as wish to prepare themselves for public life, and 
of those young men of wealth, of whom there is an increasing 
number, who wish to cultivate themselves and take their appro- 
priate place of influence in society. Let there be the amplest 
opportunity for the study of English institutions, even ft^r back 
into the middle ages, for that of Roman history and Roman law, 
' for that of comparative legislation, and even for less immediately 
practical subjects, such as feudal and canon law. Let the plan of 
the library be expanded, so that it shall furnish the best books 
on all branches and topics connected with law, legislation and 



24 



4 



government. Can it be doubted that such an institution, of 
wliicli I have sketched a faint outUne, would be of vast service ; 
that its influence would reach into the halls of Congress, into the 
departments of government, that it might become a fountain of 
light through the Avliole land. Such an institution on so large a 
scale could not be self-supporting, and certainlj^ men from every 
class of society ought to share its advantages, so that the best 
talents of the poor as well as the rich might be cultivated for 
the benefit of the country ; no small amount of funds, therefore, 
would be needed ; but I present the idea in the hope that some 
man wlio can estimate the value of great and useful plans, and 
has the means to effect them, may be disposed by what I have 
said, or others hereafter may say better, to turn the idea into a 
reality. 

And, now may I ask for the patience of my hearers, while I 
suggest one more thought touching the importance of law 
studies in connection with Yale College. The sciences of 
nature have grown immensely in theoretical and practical im- 
portance during the last century, and for a long time to come, 
it is probable, this growth will be unobstructed. Oiir system 
here is such that all new discoveries, all new sciences, with their 
practical applications, must form a part of it, and an increas- 
ingly important part. Now, these sciences have to do with 
natural law only, and their applications affect the development 
of the material side of civilization. There is danger, therefore, 
that the balance between body and spirit, the natural and the 
moral world, will be disturbed, wdiich would be a state of things 
fraught with danger to the best interests of man. For this 
reason I desire to see all the sciences flourish side by side ; the 
moral in their full power by the side of the natural in theirs. 
Only so can the best interests of society and of the individual 
man be promoted and a harmony be maintained in human cul- 
ture. Tliat a school of law, teaching a science whoso founda- 
tion is right and justice, would contribute to this end, cannot be 
doubted. 




BY 

EDWARDS PIERREPONT 





It is a singular fact in history, that the Normans, the most 
daring, brilliant and adventurous race that has 'ever yet ap- 
peared, by force of arms, established themselves in absolute 
and enduring power both in England and Southern Italy at the 
same period : and it is even more remarkable that what seemed 
a mere accident in the Italian Conquest should have produced 
such an immense influence upon England, in her Government, 
Laws, Commerce and Ecclesiastical policy, lasting and active 
even unto this day. 

Along the lofty rocks which guard the shores on the Gulph 
of Salerno, you yet shall see remnants of the embattled walls 
and ruined towers which tell alike of the grandeur and decay 
of the once proud city of Amalfi. Here it is claimed that the 
mariners' compass was invented, and it is conceded that here 
it was perfected : — Here was founded the order of St. John of 
Jerusalem, made famous by the Knights of Malta ; — -and here 
the Pandects of Justinian were found. 

Six hundred years after the Pandects were published, and 
centuries after the Temples and palaces of Rome were in ruins 
and her laws almost forgotten, — Roger, a Norman king, de- 
scendant of the famed Count Tancred de Hauteville, took the 
City of Amalfi.— 

In the Pillage of the Town a copy of the renowned Digest of 
the Roman Laws was discovered ; — a discovery Avliose effect 
upon the civilized world was greater in its consequences than 
that caused by the discovery of the Magnetic Needle, 
4 




26 

Upon the discovery of the Pandects the study of the Eoman 
civil hiw revived all over the Continent of Europe, and forth- 
with the Normans introduced it into England, and nearly 
every vestige of the common Law was for centuries almost de- 
stroyed. 

Chancellor Kent remarks that : " The Pandects are the 
" greatest repository of sound legal principles applied to the 
" private rights and business of mankind that has ever 
" appeared in any age or nation." 

Sir Mathew Hale said that: " The true grounds and rea- 
" sons of law were so well delivered in the Pandects, that a 
" man could never well understand law as a science without 
" first resorting to the Eoman law for information " : — And 
Lord Holt declares that : " The laws of all nations were raised 
out of the ruins of the civil law and that the principles of the 
English law were borrowed from that system." "When we con- 
sider, that this Code embraced the wisdom of the Sages of the 
Law and tJie experience in jurisprudence of all nations for 
more than twelve hundred years, we need not be surprised to 
know that the general principles of the Roman Code rule the 
World to-day. 

But it should never be forgotten by the American Lawyer 
that the Digests were compiled under a Boman Emperor, long 
after her legal sages were dead, after the last embers of civil 
and political liberty were cold, and when even the greatest 
Lawyers of Rome were abject at the Emperor's feet. Hence 
the "Lex Bey ia''' expressly inculcates the foul doctrine of ab- 
solute power in the Sovereign, and that every right and all the 
authority of the people were transferred to him. 

Perhaps it was well, — perhaps it was necessary, that a great 
Empire which by law had destroyed every trace of freedom 



Note.— I prefer to adhere to the traaitious so loug accc-ptud in relatiou to the revival of the 
Komau Law, uotwithstaudiug the conclusions of the German Historical School. 



27 

should pass under tlie iron lieel of the fierce Barbarian, who 
silenced even the wise teachings of the Koman Law while he 
destroyed the false doctrine of despotic sovereignt}^, but cher- 
ished in his rude way the dying spirit of political liberty ; — a 
spirit born in the half savage North, — cradled through the 
feudal ages, — scarce heard by the wild Soldiers who rocked it, 
became as the voice of an Earthquake, shook the Koman Hier- 
archy to its foundations, liberated the consciences of enslaved 
men, sent heads of tyrant kings to the bloody block, filled this 
vast continent with toiling freemen, and gave us the power to 
stand fearless on this platform and discuss the rights of the 
Government and the Governed, as I propose to do to-day. 

In the City of Amalfi, of which we have spoken, a Council 
of the Koman Catholic Church decreed that no one who Avas 
engaged in the practice of the Law could enter the kingdom of 
Heaven. — 

Li the city of New Haven, Noah Webster taught the child- 
ren of America, by picture before they could read, and by fable 
at their first lisping, that the farmer was honest and that the 
lawyer was a rogue: — But in spite of decretals of the Pope 
through his Council and of the teachings of the Puritan 
through his spelling-book, — Lawyers have continued to be an 
honored and a trusted class, the friends of liberty and the foes 
of oppression. 

Not now stopping to debate which kingdom in the other 
World the Lawyer may enter, we can safely assert that in this, 
he will enter legislative assemblies, the Halls of Congress, the 
Senate and the Cabinets of the United States, — and hence it 
behooves us to know 'what kind of training, moral and intel- 
lectual, this great and ancient seat of learning is about to »ive 
to the young lawyers of its charge. 

The founders of this Republic were wise in their generation, 
but of the great future not much was revealed. — In their day, 



t\ 




28 

no Steamer liad 3vor ploughed the Ocean ; no Locomotive had 
ever drawn a thousand men over the Earth at the rate of sixty 
miles an hour. Buffalo was then practically further from New 
York than San Francisco is to-day ; then, communication 
between America and England was had after a long and weary 
voyage ; while now, a letter written in London at the rising- 
sun, is read in Xew York, five hours before his inspiring beams 
can gild the morn upon the topmost boughs of joviv Forest- 
City. 

On the West, Asia with her strange civilization and her date- 
less history looks over into our face ;— on the East, we can 
talk with Christendom as we will. — Mexico, fast dissolving, will 
soon, very soon, melt into our embrace, and then the Com- 
merce of the World is at our feet! With every climate, with 
every soil, with every mineral and every tree whicli the needs 
of man can wish ; with colleges, newspapers, free schools, free 
suffrage, free speech ; — with slaver}^ abolished, energy, enter- 
prise, activity unparalleled, and intellect sharpened beyond 
ony experience of the past, can we fail to become the greatest 
nation upon which the sun ever shone ? 

Yes ; - and fail we shall, unless a change comes over the 
spirit of this people, and sturdy honesty drives out imbecility 
and corruption ! Moral forces as well as physical advantages 
must be considered in calculating the future of a nation. No 
Government can prosperously endure, which in the main, is 
not administered by the higher intellect and the higher moral 
sentiments of the people. It requires ability as well as hon- 
esty to govern a great nation wisely ; and yet, our people make 
frequent protest against this simple truth ; — they never employ 
a stupid Lawyer, to try an important cause, nor an ignorant 
Mariner to sail a valuable Ship, but they often elect Legislators 
to make laws, who know scarce anything, and about Laws and 
their operation, — nothing. 

As the Country advances, new and complex relations make 






mi^^. 



f-ii'tf 



29 

Government tlie more difficult, and a liiglier order of States- 
manship is required. 

Our fathers declared that all men were born free and equal, 
and to-day we have in several States Legislators who were 
born negro slaves, some of whom have no education whatever. 

Our tlieor}^ is, that the most ignorant must govern if they 
are the most numerous ; and Arkansas, Louisiana and the 
other reconstructed States are giving our theory a rude test. 

But we are told that the trouble in those States comes of the 
fault of the South : — But wdien your kitchen is on fire it does 
not help the matter to exclaim that it is the Servant's fault ; — 
what you want is, to save your house. 

When the War was ended a Statesman could see that tho' 
Slavery was dead its corpse was miburied and chained fast 
to the foot of the Republic, and would breed disease if not 
wisely disposed of : — But it was not thought desirable that 
Statesmen should meddle in this matter, and politicians has- 
tened to re-construct the South, upon theories crude, ill-con- 
considered and impossible of success. 

The seeds of this folly are producing fruits after their kind, 
and bitter fruits they are, — more dangerous to liberty than any 
that ever ripened on onr soil. 

The States along the Mississippi voted large sums to repair - 
the Levee and restrain the natural overflow of the Great River, 
^he river would have respected a solid dike, but he disregarded 
the votes, and washing away his neglected banks, he over- 
whelmed in one disastrous flood the fields of rice, of corn, of 
cotton and of sugar, —destroying alike the dwelling of the rich 
and the cabin of the poor, and bringing ruin to the innocent 
for the crimes of dishonest rulers who had stolen the taxes and 
neglected their vvork. 

What the flood left the pestilence will destro}^, and the despair- 
ing people have cried to the Federal Government to protect 
them from starving. — How long do you think that Liberty can 







30 



survive iu States wliere such ignorance and iuiqnitv^ prevail, tlio' 
ever}^ living thing should vote every Sunday in the year ? — Only 
virtue and intelligence can preserve a Republic. 

Whether the Government of the States shall become ab- 
sorbed by the central power will depend entire!}- upon the 
virtue and intelligence of the States. A people advanced in 
civilization and loving property as we do, will have a Govern- 
ment which can protect them in the enjoyment of their prop- 
erty" ; and if the people of the States show sufficient virtue 
and ability to maintain good government, then the States will 
retain their power ; but if through ignorance or corruption 
their Governments fail to protect the Citizen in his rights, 
State Governments will perish and surrender to the Central 
Power. — It is all idle to talk of Cwsarism in this Country, and 
the cry awakens no alarm : — C^SAEISM is only possible when 
the people seel; it as their last desperate defense against corrupt 
and despoiling rulers ! A usurper of the Supreme Authorit}' 
against the omnipotent power of public opinion would perish 
in a night. 

We are a practical race, loving real material things — we live 
in the present and the future ; we care nothing for the past ; 
we have but little sentiment and no reverence for that which 
is merely " grey with age." 

I can recall the name of but a single man in all antiquity 
whose advent here would awaken any great enthusiasm. 

If Cicero, the most accomplished Orator and litterateur of 
Kome should come over, with his studied speeches, arranged 
with exordium, argument, and peroration, made up of sentences 
polished, formal, and wordy in the extreme, and should under- 
take to address the American People, they might gather once 
to see him and enquire whether this was the same man who iu 
the Roman time coined so many new words to express a few 
old ideas ; who was peevishly ambitious, timid an.l vacillating ; 
whose insatiate vanity made him talk incessantly about himself, 



31 

aud induced liim never to spare the feelings of his best friend 
if by the sacrifice he could gain the reputation of a wit at his 
friend's expense ; who was generally circumspect, well behaved, 
and in morals among the better Romans of his time, but too 
cowardly to be a faithful friend, and who in his old age divorced 
without just cause Terentia, the "Wife of his Youth and the 
mother of his children, in order to marry his rich young Ward 
that he might get her money to pay the debts which his vanity 
and ambition had created : — The first curiosity being satisfied 
our people would tell him, that " he might have been a very re- 
spectable old fogy in a by-gone age, but that we had no use for 
that sort of Orator in our rapid Country and that he had 
better go back." 

But if Julius Cesar, who lived at the same time, should 
arrive in the next steamer we should hail him as a native, or at 
least as a naturalized American, about 40 years old, who had 
landed in the very nick of time when the Republic wanted 
just that kind of man ; — we should send him immediately to 
Congress, and I dare say, talk of him for President before long 
notwithstanding the Constitution. 

What was there about this Roman which should enable him 
to step down Nineteen hundred years and find himself at home 
in our midst? — He had some flagrant vices : but meanness 
and vacillation, treachery and cowardice had no dwelling in 
his soul. — 

In the field, — with perceptions intuitive and quick as the 
electric flash, followed by celerity in movement never before 
conceived ; — unselfish in danger, sharing the humblest meal 
with the humblest soldier, and shunning no hardship and no 
peril which he asked other men to brave ; — fearless in battle 
as a man of fate, and generous in the hour of victory as no 
Conqueror had ever been before him. 

In the forum, — eloquent and condensed, going right to the 
marrow of the thing, using words only to enforce ideas. Al- 



m^--m!mmmmmm 



32 



ways forgiving, unci liberal to excess ; and when lie came to the 
belm of State showing a grasp of mind, a grandeur of ideas 
antl a greatness of soul which won the hearts of the people 
and awakened a jealously in mean rivals which only his blood 
covild appease ; And when they had murdered 'this foremost 
man of all the world," under the false pretense of liberty for 
Rome, what did the Roman people gain? Freedom for 
Rome ? Not at all ; — The bloody deed but sealed her doom 
and hastened her destruction ! 

He comes through the centuries to our times like one born 
in our Generation because, while gifted with other transceudant 
faculties he was so richly endowed with the faculty oi imagina- 
tion ; — a faculty which inspires the others. — This is the vestal 
fire which never grows cold, the flame of immortal youth ; — 
it illumines the mind in every age to detect the trntli ; — to see 
things in their complex relations just as they are, and to behold 
in their train the events which are coming in the unerring 
sequence of causes which are passed. 

It is this which makes Homer and Shakespeare poets of all 
time- which revealed to Plato and Lord Bacon their amazing 
wisdom : — which made Hannibal, Cromwell and Napoleon the 
wonder of their age, — which gave to the logic of Chatham, of 
Burke and of Webster its vital force, and lifted them intel- 
lectually above their compeers. 

President Porter, in his work on the " Human Intellect," 
says: "In the communication of scientific truth there can be 
no question that a large measure of imagination is of essential 
service. * '^^ '^ Indeed, we may safely say that in the history 
of speculation and science not a man can be found who was 
distinguished for philosophic genius who did not possess an 
active and a glowing imagination, and whose imagination did 
not render essential service in the operations of thought.' — And 
further, — " that its workings are more fitly compared to inspira- 
tion than those of any other endowment of the soul." 



33 

Tyndall, in liis " Fragments of Science," — treating upon the 
scientific use of the imagination, says : 

" We are gifted with the power of imagination, and by this 
power we can lighten the darkness which surrounds the world 
of the senses. ^' ^ Bounded and conditioned by co-operative 
Reason, imagination becomes the mightiest instrument of the 
physical discoverer. Newton's passage from a fallen apple to a 
fallen moon was at the outset, a leap of the imagination. * " 
In fact, without this power, our knowledge of nature would be 
a mere tabulation of co-existences and sequences. We should 
still believe in the succession of day and night, of summer and 
winter ; but the soul of Force woidd be dislodged from our 
Universe ; causal relations would disappear, and with them, 
that science which is now binding the parts of nature to an 
organic whole." 

And Agassiz, in his geological treatise, says : 
" Imagination, chastened by correct observation, is our best 
guide in the study of Nature. We are too apt to associate the 
exercise of this faculty with works of fiction, while it is in fact 
the keenest detective of truth." 

I think we may assert that without a liberal endowment of 
this faculty no one in science, letters, art, statesmanship or 
war has ever gained an imperishable name. 

I have said that we are not a sentimental race. — Look at the 
Washington Monument, on the Banks of the Potomac !^ — The 
association to rear it was started 4i years ago, with Chief 
Justice Marshall at its head and an Ex-President as his 
second : — According to the plan it was to rise high above the 
Pyramids. — It rose about 170 feet, and 20 years ago it stopped, 
and looks very determined never to rise any more ! Intelligent 
Foreigners, now here, express amazement that we show no 
sentiment about the Centennial of our Nation's birth, and in 
contrast point to the celebration last month, of the raising of 
the Siege of Orleans, which has been continued through cent- 
5 



34 



uries with increasing enthusiasm. — Perhaps sentiment of this 
kind does not flourish in a Country whose history is so new, 
and certain it is that we have nothing hke the raising of the 
Siege of Orleans where we can mingle fable and religious awe 
with the historic event, and enkindle anew at each returning 
Ma}' the sentiment of reverence for the simple shepherd-maid 
by whose almost miraculous power the siege of the City was 
raised. — But it is not surprising that the name of Jeanne 
D'Arc should be held is such reverence in France. No one 
can read her brief but beautiful life, her marvellous deeds, her 
wonderful trial, her cruel death, and fail to feel that no holier 
soul has ever lived on earth or ascended to the Savior through 
the flames ! 

Read over again the History of the Roman Republic to the 
death of Julius Ctiesar, and the History of England from the 
reign of Elizabeth, and you will be startled by the parallels in 
our own time, and possibly you may fear lest we siiffer some 
of the like punishments. 

One and the same uu^ai-ying lesson is there taught, — that 
when the Government is conducted by able and upright men, 
the nation advances in civilization, riches and power ; but 
when the nation is ruled by the dishonest, and spends lavishly 
through its debts, — luxury, corruption, injustice, fraud and 
their inevitable consequences are sure to follow, and like war, 
demoralize and destroy the innocent with the guilty. 

Elaborate investigations have been made to find out the 
causes of longevity in men, but statistics have revealed only 
the single uniform fact, of early rising and early retiring. 

When Statesmen shall have investigated the causes of lon- 
gevity in States, I imagine the}' will find that moral causes 
alone and very simple ones, will give the solution. 

China, whose history through the elaborate works of the 
Commission established by the French Government in 1851, 
we are just beginning to read, stands forth as the most illus- 



35 



trious example. As the increasing fleet of steamers on our 
Pacific Coast are bringing us every clay in closer relations 
with that vast Empire, and as her laborers are pouring over to 
our Shores, it becomes the American Statesman to give heed 
to the great fact, and consider what effect this is to have upon 
the future of our country. 

Her civilization, her polity, her religion ditfer widely from 
ours, and when at tlie Cannon's mouth we shall have forced 
commercial relations, steam-machinery, electricity. Hoe's 
printing press, and paper money upon the Chinese, Ave had 
better not forget that in exchange they will force upon us, an 
interminable throng of Emigrants, who will bring their peculiar 
morals, habits and religion, and their peculiar vices ; and that 
soon they will acquire the right to vote. Remember that 
China can send fifty million of voters to our shores and have 
more left than she knows what to do with. This voting ques- 
tion is a difiicult one which the American people will reconsider 
some day, and perhaps we may then hear the honest inquiry, 
who will make the best rulers, as well as who can get the most 
votes ? 

We just begin to hear a little murmur on the breeze coming 
up from the South, — but few note effects from silent causes 
which are stealing along like the unobserved rising of the 
tide. 

When Governor Seward lately visited China he was sur- 
prised to find that the greatest work of human hands begun 
24U years before Christ, was so well constructed that " but very 
slight repairs would restore it to its original state." A solid 
fortification some fourteen hundred miles long, built over moun- 
tains, rivers and ravines ; — A work which the Pyramids will 
not outlast, and which was all done in less time than it takes 
to build a Court house in New York, and — possibly at less ex- 
pense. The great river, Yang-tse-Kiang runs three thousand 
miles through Central China and empties into the Pacific 



^Mmrnm^-im^W^^^ 



36 



directl}' opposite San Diego in California ; — it greatly sur- 
passes in depth, breadth and volume of water our great Mis- 
sissippi Eiiver, while the Imperial Canal, (twice as long as the 
Erie Canal) with its branches, makes a system of arfificial navi- 
gation of Four thousand miles. 

It is her relation to this Country which warns the American 
Statesman that he cannot neglect the present condition and 
past history of China. Her history is unique as her people. 
She was a populous kingdom three thousand years before the 
Christian Era. She saw the beginning and the end of the 
Assyrian, the Persian and of every Ancient Empire. She was 
powerful when the Pyramids were built, when Joseph was a 
slave, before Sesostris was King or Osiris was worshipped ; — 
She was a mighty Empire when tlie first stone of the Temple 
of Solomon was laid and still greater when the Mosque of 
Omar was built upon its ruins. She was rich immensely, 
when Rome was conquering the World, yet no Roman Legion 
ever trod upon her soil ; and to-day she is richer and more 
populous than at any period of her existence, and at her last 
census, as we learn through the French Government, she num- 
bered over 530 Million of Souls. (530,595,887.) 

There must be some great moral reason for this unparalleled 
longevity. The mandate, " Honor thy father and thy mother 
that thy daj^s may be long," has been religiously obeyed in 
China, while her social and political organizations, however 
defective, have been goveried by her wisest and best. 

With the solution of the many grave questions in the near 
future, the educated Lawyer will have much to do, and the 
enquiry arises whether a great University is the best place in 
which to educate a Lawyer? A great University is the best 
place in which to educate anybody who is to take part in 
affairs ; and this should be kindly told to the noble men who 
are giving their substance to endow small Colleges all over 
the country. 



37 



The influence of congregated numbers is not sufficiently 
considered, either in the intellectual, moral or physical devel- 
opment of men. The boy who comes in daily contact with 
crowds of other boys will be widely different in robust vigor 
from the one who is educated alone by a tutor at home. 

That subtle influence, that magnetic force equally necessary 
for the development of a healthy body and a healthy mind, is 
lost in seclusion, and can only come of the congregation of 
numbers. Not only contact of mind with mind, but contact 
with manj' minds, is absolutely essential to a perfect growth. 

The American artist finds his genius flag in his solitary 
home, a] id he goes to Florence or to Rome, where, in the spirit 
of the place, among an artistic crowd, he has new inspirations 
and capabilities which alone he could never attain. 

Place even an educated man upon a fertile plain, with no 
companions but laborers, whose daily bread depends upon 
their daily toil, and though he may have the Astoe Library in 
his house, at the end of a few years he will have rusted out. 
Association tends to culture and advancement ; dispersion and 
isolation tend to barbarism ; — and this is true the world over. 

Equality is the central idea with our people, and I dare say 
that in this large audience there are many benevolent persons 
who would make all equally rich ; but it would come to about 
the same to make all equally poor. The rich man would not 
do the menial work of another rich man, and the rich woman 
would not wash and cook for the rich man's wife ; — the poor 
man will not brufh the shoes of another poor man who can 
give him no pay, and all the social wheels would be ablock. — 

Equality before the laws we can have ; equality of condition 
is impossible. 

A striking feature in our late development is an intense 
individualism, not favorable to the best interests of the 
State. The reason is obvious ; — for civil services, however great, 
the State confers no permanent honors or lasting rewards, and 



38 



in ordinary times, the working of our system does not admit 
those, who would serve for honor and patriotism, to serve at 
all. 

We drift away from the economy of former days. During 
the early years of Washington's administration the entire 
ordinary expenses of the Federal Government were but 
$1,877,000 a year ; while the taxes of the single city of New 
York this year are $39,218,945.79 ; and the cost of the Federal 
Government for the fiscal year, this month ending, as estimated 
by the secretary of the treasury, is $319,198,736.82. 

A little arithmetic will show that our expenses have in- 
creased in far greater ratio than our population and resources ; 
— an ugly fact, — so ugly that no one seems willing to look it in 
the face. 

The city of New York will best illustrate how easily great 
natural advantages may be destroyed by moral causes. 

Better placed for commerce than any other great city on the 
globe. New York is losing her trade. A corrupt and imbecile 
government, neglecting the piers, docks, storehouses, elevators 
and other facilities for business, has through fraudulent prac- 
tices so increased the taxes and other exactions upon the 
merchant, and thus made his expenses so enormous that other 
places can undersell him, and trade, never sentimental or 
aesthetic, goes where it can buy cheapest. 

Money has a closer relation to morals than is generally ad- 
mitted. In all history, whether of individuals or communities, 
I find that laxity in money matters is followed by looseness in 
morals ; and among other evidences I note a favorite theory, 
quite prevalent just now, that there ought to be increased facil- 
ities in obtaining divorces, on the ground that facility of divorce 
will diminish the temptations to vice, — That is, — legalize Bob- 
bery to prevent Burglary ? 

However great our boasted independence may be, we are 
nevertheless, in some respects, facile imitators of older nations. 



39 



We are hardly conscious of the increasing influence of En- 
gland upon this country ; — an influence somewhat reciprocal. 
She has a glorious history, and you cannot breathe her air and 
see the evidences of her perfect order, her progress and her 
collossal power without a thrill of reverence for the old foun- 
tain of our blood : — But to reach her present greatness En- 
gland struggled for several centuries thvough ignorance, tyranny, 
wars and corruption of which we have no parallel, and out of 
v/hich we draw much consolation for our future. 

The reign of Queen Elizabeth is regarded as one of the most 
glorious in English history. — It was the time of Walsingham 
and Burleigh ; of Shakespear, Bacon and Raleigh. 

About the court of Elizabeth was a young courtier named 
Christopher Hatton ; he had never been admitted to the Bar, 
and his only qualification for the highest Judicial Office in the 
Eealm was comeliness of person, skill in dancing and foppery 
in dress ; and yet, to the amazement and chagrin of all the 
great Lawyers of the time, this handsome dandy was made 
Lord High Chancellor of England, and held the Office until he 
died. 

Under all our Presidents the highest judicial places have 
been given to able men, and when the great office of Chief 
Justice fell vacant by the death of Chief Justice Chase, the 
President selected no personal favorite, but bestowed the high 
honor upon an eminent lawyer of tried integrity, a native of 
your State, a son of old Yale, and I may add with pardonable 
pride, — a member of the class of '37. 

When James, the successor of Elizabeth, tried to extend his 
Royal prerogative against the liberties of England, he found 
Coke and other great Lawyers stoutly to resist. When Went- 
worth, by far the most able, the most eloquent, the most reso- 
lute Commoner who had ever appeared in England, entered 
Parliament, he took the side of the people against the encroach- 



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40 



ments of Charles ; but after seven years he became an apostate, 
and turned all his vast abilities, his experience, sagacity, de- 
termined purpose and his inflexible will, to the establishment 
of that thorough system of kingly power which should forever 
crush the liberties of the people ; But he found a legal lion in 
his way, and when ruling Ireland with iron hand and adaman- 
tine heart, striving with all his might to subject every private 
suit in the Courts of Justice to the Eoyal prerogative, he writes 
to Laud : " I know very well that the Common Lawyers will be 
passionately against it, who are wont to put such a prejudice 
upon all other professions, as if none were to be trusted, or 
capable to administer justice but themselves ; yet how well this 
suits with Moiinrchii, when they monopolize all to be governed 
by their year books, you in England have a costly examj^le." 

At times, England has had her prostrate judges and a slavish 
Bar, but in the main, her Lawyers have fought valiantly for 
liberty, and to-day we can point to every Christian Govern- 
ment on earth and be certain that its liberties can be measured 
by the influence of its Lawyers. 

As the price of his apostacy Wentworth was made the Earl 
of Stafford, but under the lead of Pym £ind the resolute Lawyers 
of the time, the Earl was arraigned for attempting to subvert 
the Laws and the liberties of England. Even his bold spirit 
grew alarmed at the tone of the Commons, and he sought the 
King.— 

Charles gave him the most solemn assurances that " not a 
hair of his head should be hurt," and a few days after gave 
his royal assent to the Bill of Attainder which brought this 
ablest minister, whom the king had used to make himself 
absolute, to a bloody and an ignominious death ! Few years 
passed by, — uneasy years for this perfidious king ; — and Charles 
walked up the scaflbld to die, as he had let his faithful Staffoid 
(]ie ; — and when the beheading axe was seen, we may well be- 



41 

lieve that the shade of the Earl appeared to the faithless king, 
who mournfully exclaimed, 

" When we shall meet at compt, 



This look of thiiKi will hurl m}^ soul from heaven. 
And fiends will snatch at it." 

Now calmly standing near the vacant throne we see by far 
the greatest sovereign that England has ever had. 

Literary sycophants have been accustomed to revile the 
character of Cromwell and to represent him as a low born 
vulgar hypocrite or bigot. He had not the parlor graces of 
Lord Chancellor Hatton, but he would have walked alone, 
thro' an army of Hattons as an ox walks through a field of 
grasshoppers. 

Born of an ancient family, descended from some of the high 
nobility, he was related to Thomas Cromwell the Earl of Essex 
and sometime minister to Henry VIII. His grandfather was 
Sir Henry Cromwell the Lord of Hinchinbrook, known as the 
" Golden Knight," on account of his great riches ; and his 
mother was of the best of English blood, and her relationship 
to James I induced that Monarch on his way to take posses- 
sion of the English Crown to become a guest at the Cromwell 
Mansion, where Oliver, then but four years old, saw the King 
at the family table ; — James little dreaming that the head of 
his own son would be cut off by this kindred boy, who should 
reign in his stead. 

He was educated at the University of Carnbridge, and when 
but 18 years old he was called home by the death of his father 
to be the sole protector of his mother and sisters. 

While reading law in London at the age of twenty, he fell 
in love with Elizabeth, the beautiful and accomplished daugh- 
ter of Sir James Bourchier, a wealthy knight. 

At the age of 21 he married, and under the same roof with 
his mother took his young bride, who afterwards coming to her 



42 

exalted station showed a purity and uolileness of character 
more beautiful than her personal loveliness. She was the first 
and onhi love of Cromwell, and in the height of his greatness 
and near the end of his reign, when necessity had separated 
them for a short time, she, like a true and loving woman, 
chided him for not writing oftener ; and to her eludings he re- 
plied : — " My beloved Wife, — You scold me in your letters 
because by mj^ silence I a})pear to forget you ; truly it is I who 
ought to complain, for I love you too much : — Thou art dearer 
to me than all the ivorld.'" 

He was in Parliament at the age of 29 and again at the age 
of 40, and when the Civil War broke out he raised two com- 
panies of soldiers at his own expense and devoted his entire 
estate to the public service : — 

And, when he came to power, the haughtiest kings and 
nobles of Europe sought political and matrimonial alliance. At 
his death the court of France went into mourning, tho' he had 
required Louis XIV to banish the sons of Charles, whose 
widow was Henrietta of France, the daughter of Henry the 
Great : — He was buried in Westminister Abbey as a legal 
monarch beside the annointed kings. 

There was a time when all seemed lost of the liberties of 
England, and Cromwell thought of leaving his country. But 
in those trying times, when all good men began to despair, — 
Cromwell and the just men who sympathized with him 
" sought the Lord in prayer ;" and it was " His guidance," as 
they believed, to gird on their swords for war and rescue Eng- 
land from her slavery : — and from that hour they never faltered 
and they never feared. Prince Rupert, the nephew of Charles, 
was accustomed with his gay troopers to carry all before him 
by his dashing onsets. At the battle of Marston Moor he led 
20,000 eager Royalists, and for the first time, he dashed against 
the " Ironsides " of Cromwell. It was like the dash of sea- 
foam against a granite mountain ! After the battle, Cromwell 



43 

wrote to his wife : — " God made them as stubble to our 
swords." 

When in the plenitude of his power, young Lely, afterwards 
the Court painter of the frail beauties of the Second Charles, 
wanted to paint him. — "Paint me as I am " said Cromwell ; 
" If you leave out the scars and wrinkles I will not pay you a 
shilling." Go to the Pitti Palace, — the picture with the scars 
and the wrinkles you shall see, but a kinglier head reposed on 
kinglier shoulders you shall never see! 

Voltaire, in his history of Louis XIV, says : 

" He increased his power by knowing when it was proper to 
restrain it : he made no attempt on those privileges of which 
the people were jealous : Soldiers were never quartered in the 
city of London: he imposed no taxes that might occasion 
murmurs : he did not offend the eyes of the public by appear- 
ing with too great pomp and grandeur : he did not indulge 
himself in any pleasures : he accumulated no treasures : and 
he took care to have justice administered with that strict im- 
partiality, which makes no distinction between the high and 
the low, the rich and the poor "' - Commerce had never 
been so flourishing or so free before : and England had never 
been so rich. Her victorious fleets made her name respected 
throughout the world." 

But England had grown tired of being virtuous and honest, 
and thought that she could prosper without these inconvenient 
restraints, and with intoxicated joy she hailed home that " mer- 
ry monarch" the second Charles; — and a merry time they 
had ; — The dead body of the Great Euler who had brought 
such riches and power to England, was dragged from its coffiD 
in Westminster Abbey, hanged and mutilated at Tyburn and 
thrown into a ditch. 

The Court was crowded with men, rival scofl"ers at every 
sacred thing ; and with women rivals in the open shamelessness 






44 



of their vices. Wanton luxury and extravagance appeared in 
every form ; But retribution came swifter and more terrible 
than the people had anticipated. — From the demoralized con- 
dition of the kingdom, commerce fell off, trade languished, — 
the spirit of the nation was gone : — England, so powerful un- 
der Cromwell, became tiie scorn of the Nations ; her King the 
Vassal of France, and her Navy but lately the terror of the 
world became too feeble to protect her coast. — The Dutch 
sailed up the Thames, and English Merchants saw the flames 
of their burning ships from London Bridge. The Goldsmiths 
and Bankers of London were accustomed to borrow money of 
their dealers at a low^ rate of interest and lend it to the Gov- 
ernment at a higher rate, to be repaid out of the taxes of the 
year. — MilHoos of coin had thus been deposited by the 
Bankers in the Royal Exchequer : the King wanted money for 
his dissolute Court, and he did not like to face the Commons. 
— Clifford suggested that an easy way to raise the means would 
be to close the Treasury and rob the Bankers and their clients 
of these millions of Coin : — This suited Charles exactly, and he 
made Clifford a Peer, gave him part of the stolen money and 
squandered the rest. The effect of this perfidious robbery can 
well be imagined : — Consternation followed ; thousands of 
Widows and Orphans, poor Clergymen and men of humble 
means, together with the Goldsmiths and Bankers were brought 
to poverty in a day, and every honest cheek in England was 
blanched or blushed with shame, and every honest soul prayed 
for an hour of stern old Cromwell's rule. 

But England remained in vassalage suffering the punish- 
ment of her ^^ merry maJcim/'' for many long years, nor did she 
even her/In to recover the prosperity or the rank which Crom- 
well had given her until after the peace of Ryswick, and not 
even until the early 3'ears of the 18th century. 

Economy is a sterling virtue in the administration of the 



45 

State, and without it neither justice or honesty is possible in 
Government. 

Extravagance is one of the most corrupting vices and leads 
by easy grades to numberless crimes. It is the curse of our 
day ; it came of the issue of irredeemable paper money to carry 
on the war ; and when the war was ended luxury had produced 
an intoxication too dreamy to be voluntarily abandoned. 

Our duty was plain; and to any one worthy to be called a 
Statesman our interest was as plain as our duty. — We should 
have turned all our energies to keep our faith, to redeem our 
promises, to stop our luxuries and end the sham which has cor- 
rupted the nation. 

Like cowards we have shut our eyes to the truth and reveled 
in delusions until we can deceive ourselves no longer. The 
reconstructed States, eager to prosper with the rest, issued 
Bonds which they never hoped to pay, ruined their credit and 
their thrift and tumbled into anarchy, — while we of the North 
have piled up our debts until our taxes are a burden too griev- 
ous to be born. — We wake from the deceiving dream to learn 
that the American people are subject to the same laws of 
Nature and of Finance as other mortals ; that a promise to 
pay a dollar is not a dollar ; — any more than a promise to de- 
liver a horse, for a load of wheat received, is a horse ; that 
our industries are paralyzed because coni&dence has ceased, and 
that the issue of a thousand millions of new greenbacks would 
not restore the lost confidence for an hour, or revive trade in 
the least. 

It will dawn upon the popular mind before long, that during 
the war the Government printed " hgal tender''' and paid it out 
for everything which the country produced, and thus gave a 
temporary prosperity, but that now the Government do not 
pay out a dollar for anything until it has first collected the 
money from the people, — when the changed condition is under- 
stood it will be seen that a new issue would be a delusion and 



■^ 



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46 



a fraud. The farce of attempting to create property by legis- 
lative enactment was long since played out by older nations, 
and always with the same disastrous results. 

It is now thi)teen years since specie has been our currency : 
— For more than twenty years England, through the influence 
of the Napoleon wars was in the same condition, and she list- 
ened to the same shallow arguments which we now hear ; but 
her prosperity never returned until under the manly lead of 
Sir Robert Peel, she faced the situation, accepted reality and 
rejected sham : from that hour ber onward progress begun. 

We have been as extravagant as England after the restoration 
and we are in debt for the revelry : — But some well-to-do Citi- 
zen looks up with innocent surprise and says, " I am not in 
debt." — But you are, mj deluded friend, and your house and 
your store and all that you have is heavily mortgaged, and so 
are the wages of the humblest laborer, and none can escape. 

That our prosperity will revive again I make no question ; it 
is the tribulation preceding the revival which we ought to 
avoid. A country with a people so active and resources so 
boundless will get along ; but wise statesmanship might 
save us many setbacks and heavy troubles into which the 
lack of statesmanship may plunge us. 

A Government which gets monej' from its Citizens on a 
promise which it never tries to keep does not differ in the least 
from the King who took his subjects' money without the pre- 
tense that he ever meant to pay. When a Government cheats 
its Citizens, its Citizens will cheat each other. The hardest 
strain which tree government has ever had is close at hand : the 
next Presidental election is the turning point ; it begins a new 
century in our history — the public mind will be awake, and 
that will be an eventful day. It will settle the question 
whether our Government will keep its faith, and turn its de- 
termined face towards justice, economy and truth, and thus 
begin with the new century a new career of prosperity and 



47 

grandeur and riclies such as the world has not seen, or whether 
it will imitate England in her corruptest times and take the 
curse which afflicted her so long. 

When the conflict comes may every lawyer and every man 
whom this great college educates stand for the public faith, for 
the honor and the glory of his country, with his face to the 
enemy and his trust in Heaven. 



^m 



m 




': i 



HISTORICAL DISCOURSE 



THEODORE D. W00L8EY, 



O H A. T I O N 



THE INFLUENCE OF LAWYERS UPON FREE GOVERNMENTS, AND 

THE INFLUENCE OF MORAL FORCES UPON THE 

PROSPERITY OF GOVERNMENTS. 



Hon. EDWARDS KERREPONT, LL.D., 




PRONOUNCED BEFORE 



THE AliXJMSri OF THE I^ATW DEPARTMEIVT 

OF 

YALE COLLEGE, 

AT THE 

Fiftieth Anniveesaby of the ForNDATiON of the Depaktmbnt, 
IN THE Centre Ohuech at New Haven, 

June 24tb., 1874. 



PUBLISHED BY THE LAW DEPARTMENT OF YALE COLLEGE 




18 7 4. 




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